Bribery, gay porn, and copyright trolls: The rise and fall of lawyer Marc Randazza

“At least used BMW money”

The multi-year arbitration that revealed all the information above ended this summer. It was disastrous for Randazza. The arbiter ultimately found (PDF) that Randazza "secretly negotiated" a $75,000 bribe that did not result in payment, Randazza did unauthorized outside work, and he wrongly kept that $55,000 payment from Righthaven. The arbiter ordered Randazza to pay his former employer more than $600,000. Now, Randazza also faces state bar complaints in Nevada and Florida accusing him of unethical behavior, which could threaten his ability to practice law in those states.

The whole dispute seems to have ended so poorly for Randazza that it’s easy to forget he was the party who began it. When Randazza filed a claim shortly after he departed from the company in 2012, Liberty had actually offered him money to settle it.

"He wanted to run us into the ground," Dunlap said. "At one point, we offered him money, over $200,000 just to go away. We didn't feel like he was entitled to it, but we knew he was an attorney and could make things unpleasant."

Randazza didn't fare much better on his "hostile workplace" claims. In addition to the porn shoot in his office, Randazza claimed that CEO Jason Gibson and another Liberty exec engaged in oral sex in the back of his car while Randazza was driving back from a company party, greatly upsetting him.

"Don't jizz on my briefs," wrote Randazza .

Dunlap said the car sex never happened. As for the sex in Randazza's office, that was run-of-the-mill hijinks at the porn studio—and he said Randazza was aware of it.

"It was standard practice for us to use most any space in the office to film scenes," said Dunlap. "He was told about it. In fact he offered up his home and office, just to mix up the scenery."

"Don't jizz on my briefs," wrote Randazza in a series of texts about the shoot that came out during the arbitration. The arbiter called it a "crude possible sexual/legal 'double entendre,'" while Dunlap pointed to such joking as proof that Randazza approved.

The arbiter didn't directly address whether the sex claims were true, but he did rule that any sexual allegations "had nothing whatsoever to do with any decision… to terminate Mr. Randazza's employment."

The final matter was the settlement from Oron, the cyberlocker site that agreed to pay Liberty $650,000—and that inadvertently tipped Gibson off to Randazza's side work. It wasn't the first time Randazza had asked for extra payments in exchange for not suing. In an e-mail chain that Dunlap showed to Ars, regarding an earlier lawsuit against a site called TNAFlix, Randazza was adamant about how much he'd need to be paid to ensure no more lawsuits would be filed.

"I think that there needs to be a little gravy for me," Randazza wrote in an e-mail to the attorney for TNAFlix, who would later represent Oron as well. "And it has to be more than the $5K you were talking about before. I'm looking at the cost of at least a new Carrera in retainer deposits after circulating around the adult expo this week. I'm gonna want at least used BMW money."

In a follow-up e-mail, Randazza continued to push fees. "I spoke to my partner, who was adamant that we should earn $100K if we're to never be able to sue FF Magnat, Bochenko, Novafile.com, oron.com, etc. forever and ever," he wrote. "I got him to go with $75K. But for that, we'll provide some really great value—including a jurisdiction derailing plan that you'll drool over. What do you think?"

At one point, Randazza said the $75,000 was to be released to a trust "for a settlement with me personally." He explained, "It's not a retainer for services, but rather a settlement. That might work."

The TNAFlix $75,000 was never paid, but the demand resurfaced in the Oron litigation. This time, the $75,000 eventually appeared on the invoice seen by Gibson, though that too was never paid. Indeed, Randazza said, it was never meant to be paid.

In court papers, Randazza said the negotiations for the $75,000 were "a bluff, to increase available settlement funds" and that there was no proof "he intended to consummate such a negotiation."

But the arbiter characterized the money as a "bribe."

"Defendants in my copyright cases frequently ask if they can hire me once the case is over," Randazza told Ars. "I jokingly refer to that as, 'They want to bribe me to never sue them again.' They [Liberty] knowingly took it out of context."